AT&T Park’s Custom SubAir System Minimizes Potential Game Delays Due to Rain

With a chance of rain over the weekend in San Francisco, MLB World Series fans can rest easy knowing that the custom designed SubAir System installed at AT&T Park will keep the turf dry and safe while keeping the World Series games on schedule.

CHARLESTON, S.C. — With a chance of rain over the weekend in San Francisco, MLB World Series fans can rest easy knowing that the custom designed SubAir System (https://subairsystems.com/) installed at AT&T Park will keep the turf dry and safe while keeping the World Series games on schedule.

The San Francisco Giant’s AT&T Park uses SubAir’s Sport Elite System, which has been customized for AT&T Park in order to control soil moisture, temperature, and salinity without changing the stadium’s existing infrastructure. By controlling these soil conditions, the System easily and quickly removes excess moisture caused by rain, keeping the field dry and safe for players. Utilizing wireless sensors, the automated SubAir system recognizes when there are changes in the soil and automatically adjusts to maintain optimum growing conditions, keeping the field healthy and dry, fostering stronger roots and turf. The System’s vacuum mode quickly removes standing water, virtually eliminating the need for extended game delays or cancellations due to field conditions.

All SubAir Systems are entirely custom built to meet the specific needs of a field or stadium. For AT&T Park, SubAir’s in house engineers designed the System around the existing stadium infrastructure in order to provide the highest quality agronomic performance, while being housed beneath the stadium seating. SubAir’s in house metal fabrication team developed noise-reducing cowling to put over the system’s control center. SubAir’s staff of engineers and agronomists work with preexisting, under construction, or in-concept designs to create a System completely unique to an individual operation’s needs. SubAir Systems have been showcased worldwide, more recently at Gleneagles for the 2014 Ryder Cup, the Sao Paula Sport Club Corinthians Paulista 2014 World Cup fields, and Sports Authority Field at Mile High Stadium, amongst many others.

Greg Elliot, the Director of Field Operations at AT&T Park, understands the importance of this technology in high-visibility events such as the World Series, emphasizing “the return on the investment is the opportunity to protect a baseball game from losing the gate and an opportunity to host more events because we can recover quicker and not affect the baseball field.”